BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners are calling for strengthened federal oversight of the oil and gas industry and its potential impacts on air and water quality.

That's among the high-priority policy positions the Board of County Commissioners plan to pursue with the members and staffs of Boulder County's congressional delegation that's part of a "federal legislative agenda" the commissioners adopted last Thursday.

Boulder County will be presenting that legislative agenda to U.S. Sens. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and Michael Bennet, D-Denver, as well as to the two U.S. House members whose districts include parts of the county, Reps. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, and Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.

Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner and Will Toor said they support enacting a federal law that would require the oil and gas industry to disclose chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing well-drilling process -- a procedure that involves injecting sand, water and chemicals to free up oil and gas deposits from underground rock formations.

"Chemicals typically used in the fracking process include diesel fuel, benzene and industrial solvents, and other carcinogens and endocrine disrupters," Boulder County's commissioners and their policy staff wrote in the legislative agenda document that's being forwarded to the federal lawmakers.

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Fracking critics have argued that such chemicals can contaminate groundwater and drinking water. Boulder County Commissioners are pushing for amending the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to require the oil and gas industry to reveal the chemicals they're using in drilling their wells. Current federal law exempts oil and gas drilling companies from such mandatory disclosures -- the only industry that's granted such an exemption from complying with the Safe Drinking Water Act, county commissioners complain in their legislative agenda document.

Boulder County commissioners also said they'll support federal laws "and other policies approaches to address the air and water quality impacts associated with oil and gas operations."

Their federal legislative agenda document states: "While much attention is currently being paid to the increasing number of concerns being raised in respect to hydraulic fracturing, 'fracking' is just one of the impacts that the oil and gas industry has on air and water quality. Other impacts include: air toxin and volatile organic compound emissions close to population centers; surface water and shallow groundwater contamination from abandoned or improperly lined ponds that hold brine and fracking water; and dust resulting from the use of silicates."

At Toor's suggestion, the document also will note commissioners' concern about methane emissions from oil and gas wells.

Oil and gas issues also got a priority position in a separate state legislative agenda the Boulder County commissioners adopted last month and have presented to state lawmakers whose districts include parts of the county.

The commissioners have said that during the Colorado General Assembly's four-month-long 2013 session, which begins on Wednesday, Boulder County will support state laws that would recognize, preserve and expand local governments' authority to regulate the oil and gas industry's land-use activities. Commissioners contend counties and municipalities should have the power to modify or strengthen the state's oil and gas regulations, if that's necessary to address local concerns and conditions.

Also in December, commissioners approved new Boulder County Land Use Code provisions to replace and update the county's 19-year-old regulations about drilling and operating oil and gas wells in unincorporated parts of the county -- regulations the commissioners have said are stricter than any other counties' and that may be the toughest land-use rules possible under current state and federal laws.

The Board of County Commissioners has scheduled a Jan. 24 meeting to consider whether to extend their current moratorium on processing new oil and gas drilling applications -- a year-long time-out now set to expire Feb. 4 -- to give the county staff time to prepare for implementing those new land-use rules.

Boulder County also is participating in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hearings, set to resume this week, about proposed changes in state rules on water quality testing and monitoring and about how close wells can be located to homes and other structures.

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